Well, now that we’ve got some of that background stuff out of the way …

In the last post, I brought up the point a friend and pastor made about “majoring in the majors” … focusing on the larger or deeper aspects of belief and practice that unify the vast majority of Christian believers and practitioners.

Here are some.

There is one God, although in three parts. This is a puzzling and mysterious thing that makes a lot of sense when looked at from one direction but boggles the mind or seems senseless when looked at from another direction. Theologically, this is called Trinitarianism and says that God is actually a Trinity: Three Persons in One. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This belief in the Trinity is foundational. Set aside questions for the moment and just accept that such a belief is at the core of Christianity and is embraced by the overwhelming number of believing and practicing Christians … Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant.

Another is that there existed an actual historical figure we know of as a man named Jesus, raised in a backwater town called Nazareth in what is now northern Israel. This real person was actually miraculously born of a virgin woman (an approximately 13-year-old girl at the time, we suspect) named Mary. He was the incarnation of the one true God via something referred to as the immaculate conception (no mortal father). In other words, the all-powerful creative God of everything “chose” to become a human being. Christians believe that this person (Jesus) was fully God and fully man, the only time in history that this happened. God Incarnate. Virgin Birth. These are core “orthodox” beliefs.

The next is that this Jesus entered a three-year public “ministry”around the time he was 30. He traveled the region, preaching and teaching a new brand system of thinking, while also performing a whole litany of miracles, including healings and even raising the dead. He gathered “disciples,” or committed followers whom he taught this new way of thinking while also adopting specific practices in how best to live their lives. It is also commonly accepted that he continuously announced his actual identity as the Son of God and that this (as well as some other things) got him into great trouble with the religious leaders of the day in his region. They saw him as a threat to their authority and their core beliefs and practices.

Moving on, a core belief is that Jesus was eventually tried by both the religious and political leadership for a kind of treason and was sentenced to death by crucifixion, which was carried out on the day after Passover. His death occurred on the “first” day, our Friday, and he was buried in the tomb of a somewhat wealthy follower, where he lay on the “second” day, our Saturday. On the “third” day,  goes the belief, some of Jesus’ mourning followers went to the tomb and found it empty, even though it had been guarded by Roman soldiers. Shortly thereafter, on this, our Sunday, Jesus appeared to his followers in physical form. He was “resurrected” from the dead. He stayed among them for forty days, goes the belief, and told them many things before “ascending” to heaven to be fully reunited with the Father. Before leaving, he told them he would send them a “counselor,” a guide of sorts, to dwell inside of each of them and that this counselor would transform them greatly. Hence, the arrival of the third “person” of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who showed up in a big way at an event we now call Pentecost.

These are some big core beliefs. There are others such as the infinite nature of God. He is omniscient (all seeing), omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent (existing everywhere). While the Holy Spirit can dwell in us, we are not God. God is wholly other (unlike some pantheistic or contemporary “spiritual” beliefs). A common belief is that Christians of all stripes should practice certain things such as setting aside at least one day a week for “corporate worship,” meaning gathering with fellow believers, usually in a physical place commonly known as a church. (This is to be distinguished from another meaning of the word, “church” which is the entire body of believing Christians, unrelated to physical places and buildings.) Most Christian traditions believe in practices that are often termed “sacraments,” a word with deep meaning. Without going into detail on that (and acknowledging that there are some definite differences of opinion on how many there are and what they actually are), the most well-known and commonly-practiced sacraments are baptism (initiation into the faith) and communion (a reflection of the Last Supper or Passover meal when Jesus announced what was going to happen and how and why they should remember him).

From there, things can begin to break down. Differences crop up when it comes to things like the role of Mary, Jesus’ mother (Roman Catholics are more disposed to worship Mary alongside Jesus while Protestants are far less so inclined), the meaning and authority of scripture (the Bible), the true character of God (is he both all-loving and all-judging?), the nature of an afterlife (what is “heaven” like and what is “hell” like, or even whether there is a hell), and the various interpretations of morality, place for social justice, and the “metric” for salvation. This last one is a doozy.

I’m going to get down in the weeds a bit next so feel free to take a snooze or go onto something more interesting. But, if you want to get a better read on a key piece of the Christian faith or to reinforce something you already understand, let’s dive into a big point of contention. I’ll pick it up shortly.

Next: Salvation